I wanted to get your guy's thoughts on the natural gas boom that is going on in the Northeast within the Marcellus and Utica shale. Lots of controversy about fracking and other environmental impacts that may be occuring? There are a lot of positive things that are coming from the boom such as successful wells producing a large volume of natural gas and the creation of thousands of jobs. I think this is a good topic, lets hear everyones opinions (good or bad) about the natural gas boom.

Our area has just exploded with them in the past year. I can think of four within a 5 mile radius and I am sure more to come. They sure do create a ton of job's which is something we obviously could use right now. It's also great to see all these farmers cashing in over all their years of hard work. Of course there are horror stories. I believe they are on much rarer occasions and when one happens they really get exposed and this is how everyone gets their bad opinions. I don't see it as such a bad thing. The worst part to me is having to hear large equipment running in the middle of the night. They seem to put a good effort into keeping the area clean and trying not to disturb more than what they have to. They even take care of the road maintenance and anything else they disturb. Either way it is going to happen weather we like it or not so might as well try to make the best of the situation.

gooserslan wrote: They sure do create a ton of job's which is something we obviously could use right now. It's also great to see all these farmers cashing in over all their years of hard work. Of course there are horror stories. I believe they are on much rarer occasions and when one happens they really get exposed and this is how everyone gets their bad opinions. I don't see it as such a bad thing. The worst part to me is having to hear large equipment running in the middle of the night. They seem to put a good effort into keeping the area clean and trying not to disturb more than what they have to. They even take care of the road maintenance and anything else they disturb. Either way it is going to happen weather we like it or not so might as well try to make the best of the situation.

Opinions like this are hard to come by.

For how many mines are out there, the number of contamination instances is very low. This is here to stay, we need to foster this technology and make it even safer. News stories about people lighting their tap water of fire are all you ever see, no one seems to recognize the benefits. People also like to harp on the water usage, which is almost nothing compared to other industrial demands for water.

To be honest I think i have only heard about 1 time where water was contaminated in our local area. That was about an hour south of me. Like you stated accidents like that are an extreme low percentage but it's all you ever see on the news when one occurs.

My family has a cabin in NEPA and the town was just about to disappear. Then out of the blue came this Gas boom and it litterally turned the whole local economy around. I know a few of the local shop owners and they said without the boom they would have lost their business within two years. As far as how good it is for the enviroment it all depends on how closely regulates it is. If we don't want to ruin the enviroment we need to watch it very carefully and their is no room for screw ups.

I'm currently working in NEPA as a biologist/wetland delineatior for a consulting firm. We go out and map streams and wetlands, conduct threatened/endangered species searches in proposed areas, find suitable stream crossings and better alternative routes to avoid sensitive areas, and even erosion and sediment control management in the construction phases. Before I took this position I worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in North Dakota at a wetland management district (seasonal) and my opinion on this topic was negative. But after seeing it first hand, I can attest that these companies aren't trying harm the environment and there are a lot of laws/measures in place that they must comply with to avoid negative impacts. The majority of people hear/read the negative things that happened such as in Dimick, PA. Not to down play what has happened there, but there is a lot more success stories than there are horror stories. I think as time goes by, these companies will develop better technology and gain experience to avoid situations that happened in the past. Obviously, there will be incidents because you can only drill so much and not have something negative happen. Like previously stated by some of you, the gas industry is here and its not going away and people are going to have to deal with it. From my perspective, I agree with that and now its the gas industry, DEP, and people like me who have be dedicated at our jobs to reduce the impacts that come with this development. I see a lot of construction contractors from the south who are not evironmentally friendly and its my job to make sure they are following the state/fed. laws. One of the biggest problems with this development is erosion and sediment pollution into our streams. Chesapeake Energy was fined more for sediment pollution events than frack outs last year. We have a lot of High Quality and Exceptional Value streams in PA that are/could be impacted by this. I just hope there are dedicated professionals out there with keeping these guys in compliance otherwise our waterways will be greatly impacted. Sorry for the long post guys....I could keep going on this. Hopefully this thread will continue. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

The general public doesn't understand that the fracking zones and water supplies are separated by IMPERMEABLE stone. Layers and layers of it. Fracking done right, is safe. The media does a terrible job of informing the public with fracking, as most things.We've been doing it for over 40 years.

assateague wrote:I'm not THAT cheap.

-on the viability of Pabst Blue Ribbon as a thirst quenching barley pop.

What happened in Dimick, PA is a result of natural methane seeps and has been documented for centuries. Pioneers wrote about it in their diaries and it was mentioned at least once on 60 minutes in the 1980's.

Grebe Slayer wrote:I wanted to get your guy's thoughts on the natural gas boom that is going on in the Northeast within the Marcellus and Utica shale. Lots of controversy about fracking and other environmental impacts that may be occuring? There are a lot of positive things that are coming from the boom such as successful wells producing a large volume of natural gas and the creation of thousands of jobs. I think this is a good topic, lets hear everyones opinions (good or bad) about the natural gas boom.

I have no more right to share an opinion on this issue than a New York City resident has to share his opinion on wolves in Yellowstone.

I see your ignorant and are to lazy to actually do some research. I would imagine your the kinda person that takes government words as the gospel. You are right there are places in pa that have naturally seeped gasses for centuries but hey why let a little history get in the way of your agenda!

whoa their Hopin. Im thinking that maybe you miss read my post or maybe i did not present my opinion in a good enough fasion. However I have no clue where you come off as calling me lazy and ignorant for not researching. And Please just fill me in as to what parts of my opinion give you the idea that i take all the governments word as gospel (Please). As far as reserch i spent quite a bit of time reading scientific papers and discussing with other enviromentalist about the topic to form my opinion as well as seeing it first hand. So if you disagree with my statement about how I feel about and view natural gas drilling thats fine. However for you to say that my opinion of humans ruining the planet (overall) is ignorant, well then thats just the pot calling the kettle black

Sorry I'm so late in commenting on this forum but I just joined the site and this is something I'm legitimately interested in. It's becoming more and more common to see fracking sites in arkansas. Honestly, I feel like natural gas is a great form of domestic energy to supplement other fossil fuel consumption. However, like other fossil fuels it is in a limited supply. Many say there are a lot of problems with hydraulic fracturing, but I don't think we have a better option as of now. I do believe that we should continue to investigate other methods of accessing natural gas. That's just my 2 cents on the matter and I would like to hear you guy's opinions.

I worked in the oilfield my whole career (welder and pipe fitter) Most people do not realize how important the oilfield is to or economy. The pluses are to many to list. And as for fracking, they have been fracking wells since the mid 50's. I have been on many locations when they were fracking, it is one of the most enviromentaly safest procedures in the oil industry. I have seen first hand how much time,work, and expense oil companies put towards protecting the enviroment, it would blow most peoples minds. The news media plays a big part in the publics fear and concerns with drilling and production of oil and natural gas here in the U.S. They are known for making a mountain out of a mole hill, sometimes they just make a mountain so they can generate a news story.

THE PRIDE OF HASKELL COUNTY OKLA.unknown in other parts of the world"FLY YOU LEAD CARRIN BASTARD" ( My dad, 1919/1997)

Indawoods wrote:The general public doesn't understand that the fracking zones and water supplies are separated by IMPERMEABLE stone. Layers and layers of it. Fracking done right, is safe. The media does a terrible job of informing the public with fracking, as most things.We've been doing it for over 40 years.

Well put.

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country"-George S. Patton

Natural gas drilling & fracking has become very common in my area over the past 10 years. There are pros & cons, as with pretty well everything. There are the economic benefits, which are needed in some areas more than others. Our gas is about 3 km below the surface - far below the usable water table. Though there can be issues of contamination, there have been no local cases that I've heard about. Of more concern is the amount of water used in the fracking process. This is a dry area to begin with, and the amount of potable water being removed from the natural cycle is quite staggering. The various companies are always searching for water sources, and most are searching for underground saline aquifers.. but in the mean time they draw a LOT of water from local rivers, lakes, marshes, dugouts, etc... and it's gone forever. What do do with the waste water is another question... much can be recycled in other frack jobs, but not all. It sits around in toxic ponds, or sometimes illegally dumped where it finds its way back into local waterways and poisons everything. Again, underground storage is being investigated. Another issue that's big here (but maybe not in other places) is the fragmentation of the forested landscape. There's a lot of wilderness here and the amount of (essentially) permanent linear disturbance from roads, well pads, pipelines and associated infrastructure is extreme. It's a mixed blessing which is easier to accept if there are no wells, compressor stations, etc. anywhere near your own house or playground. Long-term ecological impacts are largely unknown.

As far as the footprint goes; the amount of gas produced from one well will replace hundreds of conventional wells resulting in a smaller overall footprint. Per unit of energy, the footprint is tiny compared to wind and solar. Deer will come and graze the fresh rye grass near the well sites and roads create an edge effect that benefits wildlife. Dont believe everything you hear; there is one well in my area and the neighbors claim that their water has been ruined by it; only problem is the well has not been fracked yet. This is the best thing to happen to this country in decades, way better than so called green energy. Yes there is a downside; while they are being drilled they produce noise and light pollution. This is a small price to pay for energy independence: drill baby drill.

Fracking still requires us to pump liquids into the ground to force the gases out. While we are replacing one subastance with another (gas with liquid), we are still pushing two different materials together. Both substances, liquids and gases, will find fissures in the rock/soil/whatever and move to areas of less pressure until the pressure is equalized. In doing so existing ground water can be contaminated...hence the cries out about water changing.

I really am split on the topic because by replacing gas with liquid we mitigate the occurence of sinkholes and such, we still potentially contaminate already existing supplies of resources.